Witches Brew

i've had a lot of requests for the recipe for witches brew lately.  it's a WONDERFUL drink for the season.  totally yummy!

you need:
1gal unfiltered apple cider
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp nutmeg
1tsp cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2 cups of chopped apples
a crock pot or large pot on the stove

put about 1/2 of the apple cider in the crock pot low or on the stove on a low burner.  add in the apples and spices.  keep on low for 3-4 hours.  by that time the brew should have "cooked down" a bit, and you can add the other half of the apple cider.  keep on low for another 2-3 hours.  when the brew is finished, ladle into mugs, adding whipped cream for the kiddies, and rum for the big'uns. 

this is my absolute favorite seasonal beverage (with the exception of this pumpkin ale that you can't get in Nebraska, only Missouri and Kansas (HINT HINT, you know who you are!!!!))

i love this time of year.  the leaves turn pretty colors.  the smell of wood smoke is in the air.  the cooking and baking of comfort foods becomes an almost daily obsession.  (red beans and rice today by the way).

but i have to say that my favorite part of this season....  the horror. 

see, me...  i'm a werewolf buff.  love 'em.  can't get enough of 'em.  and yes i did see the Del Toro Wolfman.  loved it.  (directors cut, not theatrical release.  i don't see the point in the theatrical release anymore.  all directors cut, all the time, thank you)  i'm usually not a re make fan, but damn that was good.  it's amazing what can be done with computer graphics anymore.  (though i do think 'watcher in the woods' deserves a re-do)

and it's not just werewolves.  all horror.  in fact, sometimes, the cheesier the better.  killer clowns from outer space.  mars needs women.  the satanic rites of dracula.  all movies near and dear to my heart. 

oh, and lets not forget the printed word!  kim harrison is a favorite.  and again del toro's the strain.  (ooohhhh, the next "strain" book is out.  i don't have it yet, but i'm drooling already)  even old school.....  stephen king. 

ok, small stephen king rant.  you CANNOT make a good stephen king movie.  you just can't.  there is way too much fracking detail and thought, and......  ookyness that goes on in those books.  it gets lost in the translation from print to screen.  i don't care if you have a favorite movie, or if you think this one or that one was good.  it just can't be done. 

ok, time for bed.  sorry about the randomness and the shortness of the post today. 

My Best Ever Beef Stroganoff

i love to cook. i think we've more than covered that. (gee heather, i had no idea... kitchen witch, sacred cooking.... you really caught us unawares) (shaddup) and i think my followers (would you rather be called minions? i like the sound of that) know i've had a bad couple of days. so when the hubbs called in sick, that gave me the perfect oppertunity to do a little MFS, meal from scratch. and one of my favorites..... BEEF STROGANOFF.

here's what you need:
a couple pounds of beef serloin, chopped small
a 16oz pkg of sour cream
an onion
pkg of egg noodles
beef bulion granules.

first, i light my candle on my kitchen altar and leave a small offering in the itty bitty wine glass (green tea today).

then chop up the onion and begin to carmalize it. while the onion is carmalizing,

boil up you water and throw in the noodles when you've reached a boil.

once the onions are carmalized, add in the serloin into the pan and brown that all up.  quick random shot of my witchy kitchen stuff.

add the granules to the sour cream and stir up till you can't see granules anymore and it's a pale brown color.

by this time your noodles should be done, so drain and set asside. when the meat is done browning, drain, put it back in the pan, and add the sour cream mixture.

keep it on low for about 5 minutes, then to the noodles, stir up, and take off the heat.

enjoy!!

i had a whole different blog written, i really did

i had this really cool blog all written up on paper (yes, i still write with paper. strange i know) on making halloween luminaries with princess. it was going to be a step by step "instructable" complete with joyful pictures of her and i in crafty crafty bliss.

then in her pre-teen SWOOP of hormones, and emotions, and "you'll never understand", she let me know in no uncertian terms that doing something crafty with me was the last thing she wanted to do.

ok, it wasn't that dramatic, but it was kinda crushing all the same.

this is the little girl who used to make me tell her stories just before bed. the one who would cry on my sholder and no one elses when her bio-mom did something, once again, that tore a whole in her little world.

and suddenly, without warning, i'm someone on the outskirts of her life.

you see, princess has always been 'mine'. she has only dim memories of her life before i was in it. i have always called her my daughter. and i always will. to quote a cheesy halmark card "she didn't grow under my heart, but in it". she is my little girl.

but suddenly she doesn't want to spend any time with her father or i. there was almost an entire month that she didn't come over on our weekends. she wanted to stay at her bio-mom's instead. last month i heard her call me her "step-mom".

i had to fight back tears, because we were in public.

i've never been anything other than mom to her. it broke my heart. it still aches. and to be honest, i'm not sure it will ever stop hurting.

and yes, i know that it's just puberty. that she'll grow out of it. that she doesn't understand what her body or emotions are doing. that she doesn't mean to hurt me or her father. but that's kind of cold comfort when your baby becomes a stranger.

sweetness

Today, while walking around best buy, my sweet boy fell asleep in my arms.


My life is complete

I am you. I'm a Kitchen Witch

as i've stated before, i'm not a wiccan (unless were talking about legalities, then hells yeah, i'm jumping on that bandwagon (pagans themselves don't have any clear cut legal rights, but wiccans do)), i'm a kitchen witch. i have no degrees, participate in no coven, i'm solitary. i do things on my own. and that may not be the way the rest of the pagan community does it, but it's what works for me.

for most wiccans (and again, remember, i'm not a wiccan, so i could be totally wrong, and if i am, please let me know) they cast a circle, gather around the altar with their magical tools, do their ritual, and commune with the goddess. not so with me.

my entire kitchen is my saccred space. my counter tops are my altar, my cabinets my supply storage. everything i cook or bake is in it's own way magical and saccred. i rarely if ever do any formal rituals. whenever i cook i light a candle and say a thank you to the god and goddess. my cakes and ale are usually yogurt and coffee.

for instance, since i started this blog post i have been (simultaniously):
feeding bubby
blessing my new broom and cauldron (the broom will be getting it's own blog post later)
typing this up
making coffee
running the dishwasher
wiping up the counter tops
making a batch of witches brew
taking pictures of hex on the dining room table

see, for me, being a pagan isn't about the robes, and the candles, and the statues. it's about how i live my life. about how everything i do should be done with intention. i just happen to practice my faith in the kitchen.


**could not help myself with the name of this blog post. common, it was RIGHT THERE!!!**

amendment to yesterdays blog

I recieved a lot of comments on yesterdays blog, and i feel the need to clear a couple of things up. If it came across that i was lumping all christians together with the extreamists... not my intention. I know that 99% of the christians in this country arent currently trying to burn me at the stake, nor do they have any plans to.

And i have to say that ive never been treated with anything but respect by the christians i know personally. At least the ones that i consider my friends and family.

So if i offended anyone, i am sorry. Not for what i said, but for how it was percieved.

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